| This creative dissertation includes a book of poems, ranging formally from free verse to terza rima, and an introductory essay, "Mothers and Mirrors: Confessionalism and American Women's Poetry." Engaging the recent critical movement toward reexamination of so-called confessional poetry by writers such as Sylvia Plath, both works explore how both literal and literary mothers---from the voice in Emily Dickinson's poems to Snow White's wicked stepmother before her mirror---shape our conceptions of poetic license and artistic identity. |
